


This Ringing In My Ears

by Krasimer



Series: The Ringing of a Crystal (The Pounding of a Heart) [1]
Category: LazyTown
Genre: And they have some trouble, Based on a Tumblr Post, Depressed Robbie Rotten, Fae & Fairies, Fae Robbie Rotten, M/M, Mentions of Glanni and Íþróttaálfurinn, Number Nine was Sportacus's mentor, Robbie Rotten grows wings, Robbie and Glanni are cousins, Sportacus knows how to help wings come out, Wings, not by name
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-16
Updated: 2017-01-16
Packaged: 2018-09-17 20:33:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9342377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Krasimer/pseuds/Krasimer
Summary: The crystal was almost bouncing against his chest.The housing for it shook, the light coming from it in almost-frightening flashes made him worried about it, and the flashes of emotions he was getting were…Painful. Scared, lonely, angry but mostly at themselves, whoever was causing it to go haywire must have been in the state they were in for quite some time. There were flashes of betrayal, as well, moments of despair at every belonging.Sportacus hadn’t ever had much practice, before now, in feeling hopeless.Whoever the crystal was listening to, they were feeling distressed in some way that Sportacus didn’t even have a name for. Days on the airship were suddenly spent flying straight for some destination unknown to him, trying to track down the source of the absolute misery.Whoever this was, he had to find them before the worst happened.(Based on a tumblr post/prompt.)





	

**Author's Note:**

> Based off of:  
> "Consider:  
> Robbie Rotten has been accidentally broadcasting his loneliness and emotional need to a very broad ratios. So broad that Sportacus has been trying to track the source for quite awhile and just so happened to be in the area when Stephanie sent the first message. 
> 
> Sportacus’ crystal eventually stopped beeping but it still thrums mightily underneath everything else. 
> 
> Dealers choice if Robbie is accidentally using magic or it’s spiritual business or just the raw emotion is so powerful the crystal is just like “HOLY SHOOT SPORT GO FIND THIS GUY!!” "

The crystal was almost bouncing against his chest.

The housing for it shook, the light coming from it in almost-frightening flashes made him worried about it, and the flashes of emotions he was getting were…Painful. Scared, lonely, angry but mostly at themselves, whoever was causing it to go haywire must have been in the state they were in for quite some time. There were flashes of betrayal, as well, moments of despair at every belonging.

Sportacus hadn’t ever had much practice, before now, in feeling hopeless.

Whoever the crystal was listening to, they were feeling distressed in some way that Sportacus didn’t even have a name for. Days on the airship were suddenly spent flying straight for some destination unknown to him, trying to track down the source of the absolute misery.

Whoever this was, he had to find them before the worst happened.

He wouldn’t be able to forgive himself if the stream of emotions suddenly stopped, brought to a short, unhappy finale at the end of a length of rope. Whoever this was, he thought as he scanned the horizon, letting the ship drift into night mode as he prepared for sleep, he needed to find them and help them. Talk to them, maybe get their family to notice that something was wrong. Sportacus nodded as he settled into bed, draping his vest over the curve of the wall that the bed recessed into. If something happened in the night, some moment of quiet fear, he might be able to use the crystal’s telelocation. If it as possible to find them and help them that way, he would. 

It would leave him exhausted and drained for days, but he _would_.

 

The first town he stopped at was something of a nightmare.

Mayhem town, normally presided over by his mentor, was strangely empty of the yellow-themed hero. There were whispers in the alleys he passed, people who hissed at him and asked him where the hero had gone, he’d been missing for a few days now-

But his crystal hadn’t gone off for Nine.

The crystals would tell a hero when the others died, Sportacus thought as he sat on a rooftop and looked around. He could still remember the death of Eight, dressed in his greens as he was lowered into the earth. If Nine were dead, he would know. There had been no mournful chirps from the stone, there was no record of a body matching Nine’s description (He had asked, just in case), and there was no one who could tell him where the other elf had gone off to.

There was a moment of terror, an uneasy feeling in his gut as he passed when he spotted a stylized ‘GG’ spray painted on a wall.

Nine had mentioned a nemesis, the last time they had exchanged letters.

Sportacus shook his head and left Mayhem town as quickly as he could. It was not his territory, he was still an unassigned hero. Nine could handle it until proven otherwise and his mentor had never been one for giving up.

The hatch of his airship closed slowly, Sportacus’s eyes still trained on the city below.

 

~

 

The crystal was still beeping at him incessantly. 

Whoever it was picking up, they must have been in so much pain that they almost couldn’t function. Sportacus spent an extra half-hour past his usual bedtime, his crystal cradled in his hands as he stared blankly at a wall. The entire time he’d been in Mayhem town, it had been pulsing quietly as if the pain had faded slightly but was still there in the end. The noise would spike up suddenly sometimes, often around the afternoon, when there was a bright sun in the sky. It felt like insomnia if he let himself feel what connected to it. Insomnia, someone trying to sleep and never being able to.

Occasionally, he would feel the physical symptoms and it only ever made him want to find them faster. 

His back would get sore, his joints would ache, his brain would fog with exhaustion. On this trip to find whoever it was, Sportacus had quickly learned to put the ship on autopilot and simply pedal when he couldn’t drive it himself. It still needed the energy to fly, but he could keep himself from endangering anyone down below by trying to drive it while impaired.

The crystal spent every night at his bedside now.

Sportacus watched it as the clock counted towards the time he needed to sleep, his hands curled tightly around his pillow. “Please,” he murmured. “Please just hold on until I can get there.”

 

~

 

In the morning, when he woke up, the crystal had stopped making any sort of noise at him.

He climbed out of bed in a hurry, grabbing it up and pulling his vest back on as he made his way to the navigation panel. Lazytown, it told him in the language he had grown up knowing. When it was just him on the ship, he had it on his native tongue. If there were guests, it switched to English.

It depended on who traveled with him.

Sportacus stretched his arms over his head, still feeling a little sore from the residual shared pain. If the crystal wasn’t making noise, one of two things had happened. Either the person it was feeling had passed away, which would be obvious from a resulting feeling of an emptiness in his gut, or he had finally managed to find them. He knew which one he would prefer, which end of the trail he wanted to be at, but if it had been picking up that much pain, he did not know how much time he had left to track down which specific person in Lazytown was the one suffering.

He brushed his teeth and started to head for the hatch of the ship, startling backward when a letter tube popped into view. Catching it, Sportacus unrolled the paper inside, his eyebrows jumping up when he read it. 

“To whom it may concern...” he trailed off, feeling an old sort of magic pick up in his chest from where he had left off.

It was an invitation.

Sportacus smiled, then nodded. “Well, Stephanie, we must do something about this, yes?” he wrote her a reply quickly, sending it out as fast as he could before he left the airship.

 

Stephanie, Sportacus found out, was a lovely little girl who only wanted someone to play with.

The other children had become lazy and uninterested in playing somehow. They preferred to stay indoors and watch television or play games, and for once, Sportacus almost wished he had perfected the same trick as Nine. Hopping out of a screen would be a way to catch their attention if perhaps a touch extreme.

He found out that Stephanie is staying with her uncle, the mayor of Lazy town, while social workers try to find her parents.

(He finds out that she is originally from Mayhem town and he wants to hug her tightly and erase his own memories of the people hiding in the shadows. Mayhem town is no place for a girl like her, not even with the bravery he can see in her eyes.)

In talking to the children, the small crowd of them excited and curious about him, he almost missed it when the crystal vibrated against his chest. It wasn’t making any sound this time, trying not to scare the children as they clamored for his attention, but it did want him to know that the person whose pain it was feeling was nearby. 

Sportacus spotted a man hiding behind a nearby wall, his fingers gripping the stone and his eyes wide as he focused on the gathering. He could see a glimpse of dark blue covering shoulders that are curling in around a long face, purple layered over the top of it.

He waited until the children were playing together to ask about him. 

“Robbie Rotten,” the girl called Trixie almost sneered out. Her face twisted with confusion when Sportacus made a noise of confusion at the annoyance in her voice. “He _always_ messes up our day. Earlier, he tried to bribe us to stop playing with Stephanie. He’s mean and he’s rude and he’s old and he’s _awful_ ,” she stuck her tongue out. “The most do-nothing-est person in Lazytown!”

That was who the crystal had wanted him to know about?

A man who seemed to hate children, would rather bribe them to stay away from fun times and playing outside? 

Glancing at it briefly, Sportacus hid a frown as he backflipped to where Stingy was, catching the boy before he hit the ground. 

If Robbie Rotten was who he was supposed to be looking for, he didn’t like the idea of staying in Lazytown too much longer.

 

~

 

Six o’clock came and the children had to head to their homes for dinner, all of them laughing and waving as they wandered away.

Stephanie stayed around the longest, waiting until her new friends were out of hearing range before she turned to Sportacus and frowned. “I don’t think Mister Rotten is that awful,” she said quietly. “I think he’s just…Unhappy. He seemed to be upset about the noise we were making,” she shrugged. “We had a neighbor like that, in Mayhem town. We didn’t see him, like…Ever. When we did, he always looked tired and unhappy, like he needed to get some more sleep. I guess,” Stephanie reached out and took his hand like she was shaking it, letting their arms swing back and forth as she thought about something. 

After a moment, she looked up and met Sportacus’s eyes. “Mister Rotten reminds me of him, sometimes.”

She looked over her shoulder and smiled again. “I’ve got to go, see you later Sportacus!”

Sportacus watched her run off, her pink hair flying, and he smiled. “See you later, Stephanie,” he said it quietly as he turned to look in the direction he had seen Robbie disappear in. The gentle pulsing of his crystal led him to a billboard.

There was a hatch behind it.

He opened it slowly, peering down into the darkness it offered. There was a ladder and light at the very bottom, so Sportacus stared for a moment before shrugging and crawling down the ladder.

“You could have knocked,” came an annoyed voice from behind him as he reached the bottom. “It’s rude to enter someone’s home without permission,” the voice continued. “I mean, I could have been changing for all you knew, how would you like it if someone entered your home without asking?”

“You must be Robbie Rotten,” Sportacus stepped off the ladder, turning to face the man. “I am Sportacus.”

“I know who you are, Sportaflop,” Robbie’s upper lip was curled back in a sneer, his arms crossed over his chest. The beautiful, light-grey eyes that Sportacus had seen earlier were almost iron now, a mixture of annoyance and anger building up in them. “What I don’t know is _why_ you are in my _house_. I didn’t ask for you to be here.”

There was a splash of warding on the walls surrounding them and Sportacus almost felt at home in an instant. “You are a fae,” he spoke like he was afraid to spook Robbie. 

“Well _spotted_ ,” Robbie made a face. “Do you always bring up things that upset people after breaking into their homes?”

“Did you have a power surge?” Sportacus almost interrupted the man, a hand going to the casing of his crystal. “About a month ago, it would have hurt and been…Well, you would know if you had, let’s say that. Did you gain any new powers, or,” he paused, trying to remember what he had been taught about the other branches of the fae courts. It had been ages since he had been told about them, even by non-human standards. “Or did you grow wings?”

Robbie’s arms fell and he took a step back, his face going carefully blank. His eyes held a sort of fear as he looked at Sportacus. “How did you-“

“I didn’t,” Sportacus held up his hands, reluctantly letting go of his crystal. “The crystal I wear on my chest, it tells me when someone is in danger or in pain. For about a month now, it has been telling me of someone who was in such pain that I feared for their life. Sometimes it would echo a full body pain to me, I could feel the person’s joints aching and the lack of sleep hurting their mind.”

“…Is that why you’re here?”

“I was flying around,” Sportacus gestured upwards from them. “In my airship. I was an unassigned hero, you see. My crystal had finally calmed down and told me that this was the city to be in, and I was going to try to find the one who was in such pain when I got Stephanie’s letter. I am a sports elf, I cannot ignore a child who wants to play, it is not in my nature,” he pressed his hands to his chest again, cupping them over his heart. “But I also cannot ignore someone in so much pain.”

Looking unconvinced, the fae stared at him. “You’re just going to make them be loud, it’s hard enough as it is to get a decent amount of sleep. If they are loud during the day, I will never sleep again.”

“I can teach you spells,” Sportacus said softly. “There are ways to block out the noises of the outside world.”

Robbie still looked unconvinced, his hands curled at his sides like he was going to throw a wave of magic at the elf. “How do I know you’re not lying? The last elf that was here chased away my only family. This was entirely unexpected, I didn’t know what was going to happen! I’m too old for this to happen,” he gestured at his back. “I don’t have _anyone_ to help me with this!”

“May I see?” Sportacus stayed where he was despite wanting to step close and hold him until he felt safe again. There was something about him, wholly beautiful and lovely, despite how much he obviously feared others.

“…They’re ugly bumps on my back, what is there to see?” Robbie grumbled even as he waved Sportacus over. “Do you promise to teach me how to make things quiet?”

“I can teach you as best I can,” Sportacus said. “I am not the best teacher when it comes to magic, but I can teach you as much as possible. Anything beyond that and I must find someone to come help you. But first, I can help you with your wings. “Do you know anything about your family, your lineage?” he felt carefully around Robbie’s back, nearly wincing at the tension in the skin. No wonder the man was in pain, his wings weren’t growing through the skin like they were supposed to. 

“I think I am something like a half faerie,” Robbie muttered, letting Sportacus guide him into the oddly furry orange chair. “My mother was almost full-blooded; my father was half. My cousin, who your predecessor chased out of town, was full-blooded.”

“Take off your vest and pull up your shirt?” Sportacus leaned over his shoulder. “I need to actually see what is happening. It feels like they’re ready to come out.”

Robbie did, humming to himself as he balled the fabric up in his lap. Once that was done, he curled his long fingers in the fur of the chair. “I haven’t seen my cousin in a few decades,” he shifted, his shoulders curling forward so that the skin of his back was completely taut. “We figured, before he vanished, that if I hadn’t shown any signs of being like him by then, I likely wasn’t going to.”

Sportacus sucked in a hasty breath when he saw the skin hiding under the shirt. It was bruised and sore looking, pinpricks of blood spots welling up on the surface where the joints of the wings were trying to poke through. “No wonder it was so insistent on finding you,” he whispered, the words brushing the hair on the back of Robbie’s neck. The man shivered under Sportacus’s hands and the elf blinked a couple of times. “Your wings need to come out now. Your joints are pushing through but don’t seem to be quite strong enough to make it on their own.”

“…This is going to be bloody, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

Robbie sighed, letting his head drop forward. “Can anything be done about them or do I just have to let them-“ he jerked forward when Sportacus made a keening noise, his warm hands curling just below the jut of the wings. “What?”

“I am not going to let them rot inside your back!” Sportacus made another noise, looking around. “Are there towels I can put down? I’ve pulled out stubborn wings before. Part of training to be a human settlement hero is knowing how to help stranded fae of different types. Please let me help you, don’t assume that they-“

“What are you-“

They both stopped, Robbie twisting to look at Sportacus’s face. “You speak first,” he said almost solemnly. “Tell me what is happening to me.”

“Your wings aren’t able to pierce through the skin and grow out on their own,” Sportacus took a deep breath, walking around to Robbie’s front. “I think the human part of your heritage is interfering with the process. If I can set down towels and find a sharp instrument, I can pull them out and help them stretch so that they don’t cause you problems. It will likely also help you to not be in pain anymore.”

“Okay,” Robbie nodded slowly, still looking at him. “You’ve done this before?”

“Yes.”

“How successful was it?”

“Very,” Sportacus dropped to his knees to be in less of an intimidating position. “I watched my mentor perform the task a couple of times before I did it myself.”

“There are towels and blankets in the closet over there,” Robbie pointed. 

“Thank you,” Sportacus stood back up and went to grab some, returning with an armful of them that he lay on the ground and over the side of the chair. “We need to have you close to your chair so that when I am done, you have somewhere nearby that you can curl up. I want this to be as comfortable as possible.”

Robbie nodded, moving stiffly to sit on the floor next to the elf. “Did I really cause your crystal to go off for a month?”

“Yes,” Sportacus muttered a quick spell to make his hands warmer. When he pressed them to Robbie’s back, the man nearly melted into his lap. “I would imagine that this has been painful for some time now,” he rubbed gently at the bumps. “When they are out, I can teach you how to glamour them, if you would like. Not all fae want to stay hidden, but some do.”

“I would like that,” Robbie reached up to his side table and pulled down a small knife. “Will this work?”

“It will.”

“What do you have to glamour?”

Sportacus laughed a little. “My ears. I prefer to wear a hat over them, but sometimes that feels too restrictive and painful. We are not meant to try to look like humans. I am going to try to numb your back,” he told him. “Otherwise, it will be even more painful.”

“Just get them out,” Robbie hissed through his teeth.

 

A few hours later saw a blissfully sleeping Robbie slumped over his reclined chair, his arms dangling over the side.

There were still some bloody spots, Sportacus realized when he looked him over, but at least his wings were free now. They were still damp, slightly crinkled from being in his back for a little too long, but at least they looked undamaged. The skin around them was returning to the same pale shade as the rest of Robbie and Sportacus had to carefully look away from the dappling of freckles across his shoulders. 

His wings were beautiful, just like him.

At the base, they were a dark amethyst color that lightened the further up they went. The very tips were pink and Sportacus immediately loved them for how well they were formed despite the accidental mistreating.

Robbie had been beautiful before, Sportacus thought as he studied the sleeping fae’s face. His eyes nearly gleamed, his fair skin was smooth and clear, and his hands were long and tapered. His fingers were meant for playing instruments. With the wings, there was something even more to him, somehow more gorgeous than he had already been.

(He thought of Nine and the ‘GG’ written on the walls of Mayhem Town, the mysterious nemesis that his mentor had spoken of.)

(He thought of Robbie’s cousin and wondered if they were safe.)

Sportacus watched Robbie breathe, his back rising and falling smoothly. His wings fluttered as he slept and Sportacus knew he was already gone for the fae in front of him. 

Now, all he had to do was figure out how to tell him

**Author's Note:**

> I saw the prompt and knew I was going to write it when my brain automatically gave me the image of Robbie being unhappy and in pain and thinking the worst when an elf wearing blue shows up and flips around. 
> 
> I'm actually kind of proud of how this came out.


End file.
